It’s Not That I’m Naive, I just Had No Idea

My idea of adventure has changed since I was a kid. When I was young, walking across my neighbors run-down fence like I was a tightrope walker was exciting. Now running the toaster and the microwave at the same time is living on the edge. Time to engage mid-life crisis…after I clean the dishes.

An adventure of the heart in the mold of literature’s classic spiritual journeys. It began with a girl. Then it was Italian food. After that it was books and discovering that even Mark Twain had fallen for Italy. E.M. Forster was smitten too: “Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvelous than the land.”

What is it about Italy and Italians? Italian movies immortalize the mystique. Fellini called it La Dolce Vita.

Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso took James Shaw back to the sweet memories of his childhood and the Italian family who operated the hometown theater.And just like in the movie, young James had an “Alfredo” who, by example, taught him about serving people. James learned that Italians don’t feel they’re special. Luigi Barzini, author of The Italians, repeatedly asked, “Why are we the way we are?” and found no conclusive answer.

But James was convinced there was a reason why the Renaissance was born in Tuscany–and Italy has given the world Saint Francis, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Galileo and now Benigni, whose film “Life Is Beautiful” shows us that the Italian zest for living can even make a heaven of a hell.

And so, after a lifetime of thinking about Italy James became convinced that the way to find out why Italians are the way they are, would be to eat with them at their kitchen tables. Day after day he picked their olives and the Italians began treating him like family. And James began seeing their unique human quality that attracts people to Italy and keeps pulling them back again and again.

But the story doesn’t end in the olive groves of Tuscany. To discover the heart of Italian life, James had to travel back to World War II Italy. An Italian Journey will inspire you to follow your passions, your enthusiasms, to your own Beautiful Discoveries.

As the first in the Two Widows Mystery Series by Pacific Northwest writer, Ruth Ross., Two Widows and the Thrift Store Murders is a humorous and touching tale of murder, mayhem, and great bargains.

Widow Millie Mahoney is a dabbler.She dabbles in all sorts of things: art, writing, politics, and sometimes employment.Unfortunately, nothing captures her attention for long, at least not until she finds herself dabbling in murder.

Millie’s mother, Margaret Cisneros is also a widow, but she doesn’t dabble like her daughter.Instead, she quilts.She’s also the voice of reason with her occasional efforts to keep Millie on track and the dog out of trouble.But even Margaret can’t resist going along on this particular shopping trip.

Join the Two Widows as they find more than they bargained for at the local charity thrift store.

JP Weiscarver learned early the lesson that makes a journalist’s life most interesting: Everybody has a story. His hard work on regular beats at the Odds and Ends, a daily newspaper in the city of Oldport on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, led to the creation of a dream position they called the general assignments beat. It meant free reign to pursue just about any topic, sometimes collaborating with another reporter, often just following his reporter’s nose. The flip side of the beat is that his city editor, Stanley Hopper, considers JP his relief valve and will toss him fluff pieces just because nobody else is available, but those stories can be interesting, too.

“The Reporter, a Ferret and a Hurricane” contains two of his adventures. In “The Reporter and the Ferret,” JP is assigned a potentially boring story providing background information on an elderly heiress found dead in her mansion, apparently of a heart attack. With the help of a surprising source, the tenacity of a couple of reporters and an eye for detail, this fluff story turns into something more than interesting.

Residents of Oldport carefully track any tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Even though there is no severe hurricane in the area’s history, everyone knows it is possible. In “The Reporter and the Hurricane,” particular attention is given Hurricane Clarice as it quickly grows to a monstrous Category 5 storm headed toward the U.S. mainland. JP Weiscarver and the rest of the Odds and Ends staff, while covering a huge potential story, also become aware they have to prepare for the storm on a personal level.

When someone begins killing New Orleans street people, it affects the City’s tourist trade just beginning to recover from Hurricane Katrina. More than just simple acts of murder, voodoo is involved, the killer likely an actual Vodoun deity. Homicide detective Tony Nicosia seeks the help of gumshoe, and Big Easy insider Wyatt Thomas. Wyatt enlists Mama Mulate, Tulane English professor, and actual voodoo mambo. Together, they try to unravel the strangest mystery to hit the venerable City since the era of Marie Laveau.

Patrick deWitt, a young writer whose “stop-you-in-your-tracks writing has snuck up on the world” (Los Angeles Times), brings us The Sisters Brothers, a darkly comic, outrageously inventive novel that offers readers a decidedly off-center view of the Wild, Wild West. Set against the back-drop of the great California Gold Rush, this odd and wonderful tour de force at once honors and reshapes the traditional western while chronicling the picaresque misadventures of two hired guns, the fabled Sisters brothers. The most original western since the Coen Brothers re-interpreted True Grit—you’ve never met anyone quite like The Sisters Brothers.

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.